Hello all and welcome to a quick Star Trek Bestiary!
This time, we are looking into a being, or group of beings encountered once in the Delta
Quadrant, “The Grendel”.
First off, this creature manifested itself in an active holoprogram of the epic Beowulf,
where the program interpreted its presence into the narrative as the mythical monster
of yore, but we’ll start with where it actually lives.
These beings live around and possibly within a Protostar in the Delta Quadrant and can
only do so as they appear to be creatures made up entirely of photonic energy, not regular
matter.
Very little was gleaned on their society or physiology and the crew was unable to ascertain
if these creatures were limited to the Star, or perhaps existed elsewhere in the galaxy.
The Protostar was exhibiting signs of unusual photonic activity, which cause Voyager to
investigate as it was postulated that they could harness the energy for the ship’s
own use.
The being looked to be a collection of tendrils made entirely of light that was kept in formation
by some unknown means.
There was a detectable pattern to their energy that best resembled a synaptic brain pattern,
which is what led to the realisation that they were sentient.
The crew assumes that they have encountered three of these creatures, but I think it’s
stranger than that and that they may have only encountered the one.
The creatures throw out low levels of interference, nothing too major, but it was enough to mess
with the more sensitive scanners, such as those found in transporters.
Additionally, their blinding light made them hard to make out and look at and could emit
a screeching sound.
When the crew initially took samples from the Star, which turned out to be these photonic
lifeforms, they failed to beam one up which ended up being dispersed throughout numerous
ship’s systems as it broke through and annular confinement beam.
It eventually congregated in the holodeck, where it caused several malfunctions and the
program attempted to adapt as best it could, as holodeck’s do, to incorporate the additional
creature into the narrative of the tale.
Two smaller samples were contained however and these showed no signs of activity.
When the crew attempted overlay the synaptic pattern they had observed from the “Grendel”
onto the smaller samples, one sprang to life, broke through the containment and fled the
ship.
I suspect that the energy in the containers was but a fragment of the greater, and only
when it had had the patterns of neural activity forced upon it, did it literally spring to
life, and a state of consciousness, whereupon it fled in fear.
As creatures of pure energy, their ability to break down mild containment fields is evident,
but they did avoid stronger security fields.
Their touch could also throw off magnetic fields that disrupted hologram’s integrity,
but could likewise impart enough force to pierce a starship’s hull.
On top of this, they had the ability to translate matter into photonic energy in much the same
way as a transporter beam converts matter, and they were capable of preserving the bioelectrical
signal of a person in the same way as pattern buffer.
This was the fate of several crewmembers of Voyager, who were returned unharmed and no
worse off for their experiences.
They did have a craft, of some sort of sanctuary that was described as a Photonic Lattice that
was briefly detected by Voyager when a creature returned to it, and it seemed to be an artificial
construct in orbit of the Protostar.
However, aside from a brief detection, it was completely invisible to both the eye and
ship sensors.
I would assume such creations are made using their photonic conversion ability and are
originally fuelled by the matter of the Protostar itself.
As creatures of light, it is entirely probable that they can travel at luminal speeds, but
whether or not that is enough to be interstellar is unknown.
Certainly, they would need some faster than light ability to travel greater distances,
akin to Warp Drive, but we don’t even know their lifetimes.
A thousand years to get to a single star might be no big deal for them.
The species seemed benign and only acted against the crew after they inadvertently abducted
other photonic lifeforms, or perhaps pieces of the whole being.
When returned, the Grendel likewise returned the crew from their photonic bio-electrical
states, from its nearby Lattice, also suggesting some undetected communications ability between
the two.
Unfortunately, while other photonic beings were encountered again, these particular ones
remained elusive.
I find it ironic that such a creature should end up in the role of the Grendel.
The poem describes it as a creature of darkness and the holonovel itself says it “shuns
light and laughter” attacking the hall only at night, when it’s more difficult to be
caught.
The photonic lifeform is about as far from that as possible, but there is a similarity
to the tale, which adds to my theory that the Photonic lifeform might only be a single
entity, not multiple.
In the original tale, the hero Beowulf wakes to find the Grendel having already devoured
one of his retinue, and responds my tearing off its limb, causing the beast to flee, where
it returns to its lair and bleeds out.
The arm was kept and displayed as proof of the kill, and I think is subverted in the
episode of Voyager.
The transporters of the ship, I think inadvertently sever a piece of the Photonic lifeform, in
a parallel of Beowulf dismembering the Grendel.
But in a Star Trek twist of understanding over monster slaying, those severed segments
are returned, by a physician no less, and the creature healed, where it then retreats
on its own.
An alternate end for a creature that was also physically the opposite of the Grendel from
the poem.
Alternatively still, perhaps it’s the crew of Voyager, who is the real Grendel, after
all, they snatched up the first lifeform, with the intent to consume them for ship’s
energy and it was the creature who took the arm of the Doctor, chasing him away.
Just an observation I thought was fun.
Thanks for watching this video on the Grendel lifeform from Trek and I hope to see you back
for another video, Trek or otherwise.
I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you again.
Thanks again and goodbye!